A Bed of Roses
by SaiyanBlack
Summary: Oneshot Written in responce to the 99 Ways to Propose to Relena challenge at BI.


An answer to the 99 Ways to Propose to Relena Challenge on BI. Short and simple, as usual.

The title is from one of Shakespeare's many untitled sonnets; _"There will I make thee a bed of roses…"

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**A Bed of Roses**

**By SaiyanBlack**

At six-fifteen in the evening, a young blonde politician found herself in the middle of rush hour traffic, her car jammed in the center of a highway crowded with hundreds of other people trying to get home to their families. To top it all off, the heavens had opened and seemed to drown the world with its tears. After a long day of pushing papers across her desk, she figured it was the perfect cliché ending to her day, obviously created by some hapless writer who seemed to enjoy making her life dull.

With a long-suffering sigh, she let herself relax in her seat, knowing that there was a long wait ahead of her. She wanted to get home, but knew that complaining about the traffic would do little to make her day better and would, most likely, make it seem worse. Instead, she watched the raindrops as they hit the tinted windows, singular for only short moments before being joined by others and increasing in size, eventually growing so large that they slid down the glass and out of sight.

It must have been her fatigue, or even a result of the sheer amount of boredom she felt at that moment, but as she watched the rain hit her window she had a revelation. The way that the water gathered together, even taking in the smallest, seemingly insignificant droplets to create a bigger, more powerful whole – somehow it reminded her of people, the way that they started life out as a singular being, slowly bringing other people as life went on, eventually making a bigger, greater world and society.

She could associate herself with that small, nearly insignificant drop that had just fallen from the sky. She, Relena Peacecraft Darlin, had been irrelevant and unknown all on her own. But other people, greater and more powerful than she could ever hope to be on her own, had given her a purpose in something larger than just herself. Her brother, Ms. Noin, the men and women that sought to use her as a tool, and the men formally known as Gundam Pilots. With them, she was no longer an inconsequential droplet, stuck on an unbending pane of glass.

Broken out of her thoughts by the door opening, she realized that the car had stopped on the drive of her home and that her driver, an older man from the Preventers that Heero had hired specifically to chauffeur her around during the day, standing at the open door with an indifferently troubled expression.

"Are you alright Miss Darlin?" he asked, pale blue eyes watching her with a scrutinizing intensity she had seen in most soldiers from the war. She often saw that look in Heero's eyes when something concerned or nagged him.

She smiled at the man, "No, I'm fine, thank you. My mind was just elsewhere."

He nodded in acceptance and helped her out of the car, closing the door once she had retrieved her briefcase from the seat. She waved goodbye to him as she started up to the door, letting herself in after putting her code into the alarm. Heero was away; having gone to L2 on a mission a week before with the statement that he didn't know exactly when he would return. In consequence, the house felt quiet and empty; lacking the warmth his presence, or the anticipation of which, often filled it.

So, having had this frame of mind as she entered her home, she was surprised to find a single red rose sitting on the hall table where she usually deposited her things once returning from work. Baffled, she set her briefcase onto the floor and removed her overcoat, all the while staring at the vibrant bloom.

"How did you get here?" she asked quietly as she reached out to lift it off of the table. As she did so, one crimson petal released itself from the flower and fell to the floor, and following it with her eyes, she found that it wasn't the only one that had.

A trail of rose petals, strewn across the floor in an inviting sort of way, led across the foyer and up the stairs. She followed it, feeling oddly like a heroine in a romance novel as she ascended the steps, the rose forgotten in her hand as she sought the end of the path.

One would think that a thousand thoughts would be running through her head as she walked down the empty hall, but all she could concentrate on was the rapid beating of her heart and the way her breath caught in her chest when she noticed that the trail continued through the partly open door of her bedroom – the room she shared with Heero when they were both home. What surprised her most, though, was the fact that the door was only partly open, letting only a sliver of light spill into the hallway.

Against all the rules of horror films, she slowly pushed the door open.

"Heero…?"

Her lover sat at the foot of their bed, dressed in a pair of jeans and a white button-up shirt, his feet were bare. He watched her from below his bangs, blue eyes intense and dark as he leaned over his spread knees, elbows braced. His hands dangled down between his legs and he absently fiddled with something as he stared at her. He looked down and she followed his gaze to the object he held, eyes going wide as he opened the small black box. Her gaze snapped back up to his face in askance, seeing the gentile smile form across his lips as he spoke.

"Welcome home, Relena."


End file.
